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{Pages 263-265}

Sieradz, Poland(Sieradz District)

Population

Year

Total

Jews

1764/65

?

17&

1793/94

1,234

70

1808

1,753

177

1827

3,165

595

1857

5,256

1,782

1897

6,826

2,357

1921

9,284

2,835

Jewish settlement in Sieradz until 1918

Sieradz achieved town status in the middle of the 13th century.
In 1331, as a result of war, the town was completely razed. Within a few
years, however, it was rebuilt and restored to its previous status, marking
the beginnings of a new era in its development, where the Jews now began
to establish themselves. In 1436 there was already a Jewish street in Sieradz;
eventually the Jews dispersed throughout the town. Testimony to this is
one of the few extant items of information from that period: 'The Jew Yakov
purchased in 1581 from the town of Sieradz a wooden house in Bałutna Street,
the adjoining house previously sold to another Jew'.

In the 16th century the Jews of Sieradz dealt mainly in money
lending and commerce. The Jew Yakov, mentioned above, traded in textiles
produced in Sieradz and the surrounding towns, as well as money lending,
pearls, and zinc-spoons. The first Jewish settlement in Sieradz lasted
150 years. In 1569, the king granted the privilege prohibiting the residence
of Jews in the town of Sieradz ["privilegia de non tolerandis Judaeis"].

In the 17th and early 18th centuries, because
of the severe economic situation and decline in the town's population,
the Jews did not bother to seek a permit to live inside the town. They
did attempt to resettle and trade in the 1820's, however, the town dwellers
objected to Jews living in their midst and took them to court. The court
acknowledged the validity of the privilege of 1569 prohibiting Jews from
residing in the town of Sieradz ["privilegia de non tolerandis Judaies"].

In the second half of the18th century, a new Jewish settlement
began to emerge. At first, just a few Jews lived in the town, among them
a tailor, a furrier and a shochet. In 1793/4 there were 16 craftsmen representing
22.9% of the Jewish population (9 tailors, 3 butchers and 2 furriers).
Among the Christians, who were mainly farmers, craftsmen made up just 1.8%
of their working population. Apart from the craftsmen, there were also
two Jewish shopkeepers, a pub owner, a barber and a midwife.

In 1817, there were 18 tailors, 5 furriers and 2 glaziers. In 1833,
among the 187 working Jews were 6 tailors, 2 furriers, 2 weavers of fringed
materials, 2 barley grinders, a carpenter, a glover, a soap maker, a butcher,
a sheet-metal worker, a cotton comber and a jeweler. Included in this list
are also 9 shopkeepers, and 4 merchants who traded mainly in textiles produced
in the Łódź industrial zone, and in imported wine. In 1833, Shlomo Rothschild
opened the town's first commercial bookstore where he sold Polish books.
At the end of the 1820's the Jews established industries producing soap
and candles and another Jew set up a brewery.

In 1822, an order establishing a separate Jewish quarter brought serious
hardships to the Jewish population of Sieradz. This quarter was to include
merely 4 streets, and the transfer of the Jews from their homes to
this ghetto was to take place over a period of 5 years  that is, up to
1827. The actual implementation of the order did not go smoothly, partly
due to the stratagem pursued by the Jews in their efforts to annul it,
and to other problems such as the shortage of houses in the allotted area.
Citizens of the town who had rented out their apartments to Jews also tried
to cancel the order; they were anxious not to lose those profits gained
from rent payments. The order decreed, among other things, that Jews were
allowed to reside outside the quarter on condition they build a stone house
instead of a wooden house. This proved that the local authorities were
interested in some Jews remaining outside of the Jewish quarter so as to
contribute to the building of stone houses throughout the town. Up to 1833,
from among the 692 Jews living in Sieradz, 505 moved to the Jewish quarter,
leaving 187 residing in other parts of the town. Those in this ghetto were
living in 111 rooms, which is to say an average of 4 or 5 persons to a
room; this went against the obliged sanitary standard in the whole Kingdom
of Poland. The struggle over living accommodation continued up to 1862,
when the restrictions on Jewish housing were abolished in every town throughout
Poland.

Between 1810 and 1820 an independent Jewish community was established
in Sieradz. In 1812, the cemetery was consecrated  up to then the Jews
of Sieradz had buried their dead in nearby Burzenin. At the beginning of
the 19th century, a Rabbi named Reuven Yisrael Frankel served
the community. In 1830, Rabbi Abraham was the rabbi in place; he was well
known for his learning and sharp intellect. After his death in 1846, his
younger brother, Rabbi Shlomo, took over the office. He would discourse
with renowned rabbis, such as Rabbi Dov Majzels, the Rabbi of Łask, on
'Questions and Answers,' the great rabbinical work on Jewish law and legend.
During the period between the two world wars, Rabbi Binyamin Ha-levi Lewi
served the community.

In the second half of the 19th century, a number of Jews
of Sieradz became prominent in political and social circles. In 1862, a
proprietor of a brewery, Israel Kempinski, was elected to the municipality
of the district of Sieradz, and his deputy, Szymon Wolasz, was also Jewish.
In 1864, Kempinski was banished to Siberia because of the participation
in the Polish Nationalist uprising of a 27 year-old Jew from Sieradz. On
this account alone, Markus Perkal was hanged in the town. A bitter fate
awaited those Jews exiled to Siberia, accused of revolutionary activities.
In 1908, a 53 year-old Jewish peddler, Zysman Celnik, was exiled to Siberia
for such activities. In the infamous Sieradz prison, quite a few of the
inmates were Jewish revolutionaries. Three of them, Jakob Szumierski, Haim
Yehudah Fuks and Lewek Fuks, were sentenced in 1908 to two years exile
in the north of Russia.

During the first world war, the Jews of Sieradz founded charity organizations
to aid the local population as well as refugees coming into the town. In
1915, a shelter for refugees was set up, as well as a kitchen providing
free meals; also a youth club where cultural activities took place and
free meals were supplied. A Jewish sports association was instituted, too.
In these years, Zionist influences and activities increased in Sieradz,
and Agudat Israel got organized.

Between the two world wars

A survey of the professional makeup of the Jewish community between
the two world wars, shows us that in 1921 the Jews of Sieradz owned 111
workshops: 4 metal, 5 wood, 1 leather, 2 weaving, 75 clothing, 18 food,
3 chemicals, and 3 building. Altogether, 255 people worked in these shops,
157 of them proprietors and 98 employees; all of them, apart from 6, were
Jewish. The rest of the community continued to make a living in commerce
and in transport etc.

In Sieradz were several branches of Zionist parties: General Zionists,
Mizrachi, both Po'alei Zion Right and Po'alei Zion Left. Youth organizations
were founded: Hashomer Hazair, Zionist Youth, Young Mizrachi and Hechalutz.
The influences of these various factions on the Zionists of Sieradz can
be ascertained from the election results at the Zionist Congresses. In
1937 the General Zionists got 85 votes, Mizrachi 75, League for the Land
of Israel Workers 65. In 1939, the General Zionists gained 94 votes, the
League for Land of Israel Workers 68, and Poalei Zion Left 36 votes. During
these times Agudat Israel (anti Zionist) continued its activities, devoted
mainly to the community and to Jewish education. A branch of Po'alei Agudat
Israel was also established in Sieradz.

In the 1920's Agudat Israel increased its power in the Community Committee.
In the elections of 1924 Agudat Israel received 149 votes, the joint list
of Craftsmen and Zionists got 100, Mizrachi 98 and Hasidei Alexander 51.
In the 1920's the Jews had but one representative in the Town Council.
However, in 1930, 6 Jews won seats on the Council: 5 United Jewish block
and 1 Po'alei Zion. The man elected to the Mayor's committee was a Zionist,
but nevertheless, voted in, unanimously, by all the Jewish factions.

At the beginning of the 20's, efforts were devoted to setting up a Jewish
school in Sieradz; a Heder, 'Yesod-Hatorah', was established. A few years
later, a company, "Shul Kolet", opened a small elementary school - 'Yehudah'
- in a two room residence. The local branch of T.O.Z.
monitored the health of the children under school age, organized summer
school for part of the summer and provided milk for those from poor families.
In the 1920's two Jewish libraries functioned in the town; in 1929 they
united and became one. There were also two sports associations: The Jewish
Sports Association and Maccabee.

In the 1930s, anti-Semitic activities intensified
in Sieradz. In 1935 they were centered around two elderly Jews accused
of handing over 3 Polish children to the Germans during the first world
war. The accusation was never proven but was used to inflame anti-Semitic
propaganda. They demanded that the two accused Jews pay compensation to
the families. This demand went hand in hand with the economic boycott of
Jews, then causing great hardship. In 1937, 28 Jews were forced to liquidate
their shops; these were replaced by 42 Polish competitors. In the same
year, 55 market stalls owned by Jews were closed down and 48 Polish stalls
came in their stead. Also, 11 Jewish workshops were liquidated, and 10
Polish workshops were set up. As a result, in 1937, 84 Jewish families
remained without means of support, 73 of whom, unable to find an alternate
source of income, moved to other towns.

The Holocaust

When war broke out, all the inhabitants of Sieradz
including the Jews left the town. When the Germans conquered the town on
September 3, 1939, most of the Jews slowly returned. The German army and
Nazi authorities began their persecution of the Jews by robbing their homes
and shops, and soon began to set in motion severe persecution tactics.
A number of Jews were taken hostage. Some of them, it is believed, were
sent to Germany to concentration camps, while others were incarcerated
in the local prison. On September 15 (the second day of Rosh Hashanah),
the Nazis murdered 5 Jews and 2 Poles. The following day another Jew was
shot: according to a German police report, he assailed a German policeman
with an axe. On Shabat-Shuva (the Sabbath that comes between Rosh Hashanah
and Yom Kippur), the Germans slaughtered Jews on the pretence that they
had shot at German soldiers: Jewish men were hunted and hounded into trucks
where they were tortured and eventually transported to German barracks.
The result of this action: 33 Jews killed, of whom we have just three names:
community worker Haim Josef Erlich, Jerachmiel Zonenberg and Yudel Natel.
On November 11, 1939, the Germans again organized a blood bath during which
Dr Eliaszberg (eye doctor) was shot, and also Israel Rosenkranc, a dental
technician.

During the years of the occupation the Jewish
population in Sieradz decreased because the local authorities initiated
expulsions. In December 1939, some 1,200 Jews who had been expelled from
Sieradz and Kalisz arrived in Sandomierz. In 1940 or '41, 1,000 Jews were
expelled from Sieradz to Zduńska Wola. Most of the younger Jews of Sieradz
were sent to work camps in the region of Poznan -- the first such transport
probably took place in June '41. Thus, in the last year of the existence
of the Jewish community in Sieradz (1942), the population stood at 1,000-1,400.
They lived in an open ghetto established on March 1, 1940. In 1942, during
the 6 months before the final destruction of the ghetto, persecutions intensified;
the Jews were now ordered to appear at German army headquarters twice a
day, where they were carefully counted to make sure that no Jew had dared
to run away from the ghetto. They were also ordered to leave their houses
open during this attendance, thus facilitating the robbery of the remnants
of their meager possessions.

The final expulsion of the remaining Jews of Sieradz
took place from August 24-27, 1942. All the Jews were assembled in the
local church. After undergoing the selection, 184-190 young, healthy men,
and some craftsmen were transported to Łódź Ghetto; the rest were sent
to the extermination camp at Chelmno. Many Jews were also killed during
the actual demolition of the ghetto.

A place of work for Jews in the notorious Sieradz
prison, in the years 1940-1941 (1942), is worth mentioning. Imprisoned
with Jews from Sieradz were others from the area, including Pabianice and
Zduńska Wola. A workshop for weaving from refuge had been set up, and employed
not only the Jewish prisoners, but also Jews from outside of the prison.
The Jew Ajdlic, an expert who ran the production, would travel, accompanied
by German guards, to Zduńska Wola to select suitable items of raw material
for the product. This Jew was granted special privileges in the prison:
a cell for himself, and the right to choose those workers (always Jewish)
he saw fit to employ.

Some 80 Sieradz Jews survived the war; 27 of them
returned to the town, for a short time.